122 
Letters, Announcements, fyc. 
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The heat, duty, and the damp state of the weather, all unite 
to keep me from wandering far into the country; but I have 
native assistants at work. 
A man I sent lately to the mountains succeeded in procuring 
me a Green Dove. Much to my delight, it was the long- 
wished-for male. I had founded the species on a single female 
specimen procured at Taiwanfoo in 1861, where I had only seen 
one other example (Ibis, 1863, p. 396). It is a mountain 
species, coming down, as the natives of the interior report, in 
summer to feed on the berries of a particular tree. This male 
confirms my view as to the specific value of the bird, though it 
is closely allied to Sphenocercus sieholdi (Temm,). I will now 
describe my specimen :— 
Sphenocercus formosce, d* . Length about 13*75 inches ; wing 
7*25; tail 5*75, much wedged, the outermost feathers being 
1*75 in. shorter than the middle ones. Head and neck fine 
grass-green, greenish-yellow on the throat and breast, the base 
of each feather being leaden-white. Belly and under tail- 
coverts pale primrose-yellow. Axillaries and under tail-coverts 
fine lead-colour. Flanks and vent broadly striped and banded 
with leaden-green, which colour also marks the bases of the under 
tail-coverts and their stems. Upper plumage dull green, back 
and rump washed with lead-colour. On the shoulders a large 
patch of dull maroon or madder. The remaining wing-coverts 
and tertiaries green, more or less marked on their concealed parts 
with leaden-black. Quills black, faintly edged with green; a 
few of the secondaries and the bordering coverts more broadly 
edged with primrose and green. The two middle rectrices 
pointed and green above, the next pair with a faint black bar, 
which becomes larger on each successive pair as the outermost 
is approached, in which the green is scarcely perceptible. Be¬ 
neath, the rectrices are black, with ashy-grey tips. Bill and 
legs as in the female. 
The same man also brought me a pair of young Tiger-Bitterns 
(Gorsachius goisagi) alive. I tried to keep them, offering them 
flesh‘and soaked bread, on which food the Chinaman said he 
had kept them for several days. They must, however, have 
been half-starved when they arrived; for they soon died. It is 
